14: Where do you publish results?

Public criminology

As researcher John Shjarback has written, "Public criminology" is the practice of scholars reaching out beyond academic circles and disseminating their research/findings to broader audiences, such as criminal justice practitioners, journalists, and the general public. While I normally shy away from Wikipedia, this page does cover a simple overview of public criminology as well as the criticisms and critiques it has attracted. 

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Policy briefs

There are numerous webpages that outline how to write policy briefs. It is a common type of document in government circles, after all. Therefore, rather than reinvent the wheel here are links to some of them. For example, this webpage at the writing center of the University of North Carolina has an overview that is targeted to students and includes examples of strong and weak paragraphs. This page at policybriefs.org has a briefer overview and links to various example policy briefs. Finally, this Norwegian research institute has a brief but well-written guide and links to a Word document template that provides the basics. 

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Op-eds get the attention of the public

As with the policy briefs, I link here to sites that have short writing summaries. First, the Harvard Kennedy School has a three-page summary covering op-ed writing. Given they are one of the target audiences, one of the best sources for you might be the page on how to write an op-ed from The Washington Post. Finally, this page discusses techniques for the process of writing itself, including finding the right voice. 

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Professional publications

Examples from the book include:

The Thames Valley Police Journal

Going Equipped

IADLEST Standards & Training Director Magazine

Community Policing Dispatch from the COPS office

The Australia and New Zealand Police Advisory Agency (ANZPAA), Policing Innovator, is only available to police employees of Australian police organizations. If you are one, apply here. 

Police Chief Magazine from the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

In a later section, I also mention the National Policing Institute’s OnPolicing blog. 

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Academic writing

As policing scholar Peter Moskos has written here, "If you want to be recognized as an educated person, it helps to write like one. Academic writing is different from personal, motivational or literary writing. Social science writing style is impersonal, plain, and precise." Peter has an extensive web page that outlines good writing, which is also available as a pdf. Though I recommend you reward the author by purchasing the guide as a book if you find it useful. 

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Presentation skills

On my personal website, I have written about the need for academics to raise the standard of their presentations. I also have a blog post with ten basic tips to improve your PowerPoint presentations. 

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